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“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”

Nelson Mandela

We invite you to contact us.

Our success in helping leaders excel is grounded in our business experience. We blend this practical perspective with executive coaching and psychology expertise. Our approach to executive and team development is both business focused and insight based. We draw on our diverse and multi-disciplinary capabilities to match your particular needs. Our goal – real results and real change for you and your organization.

Mary Nelson

Mary helps senior-level executives and next generation talent become better leaders. She combines her experience in management and psychology to help leaders make positive, sustainable changes in performance.

With more than 20 years of experience working as a leader for major corporations, including Kraft, Inc. and S.C. Johnson, Mary knows the challenges business owners and leaders face and the impact good leadership can have on a business’ bottom line. As the owner and operator of her family’s manufacturing company, she saw firsthand what it takes to lead a company, develop employees and maintain connection with family.

Mary’s commitment to this work comes from a belief that good leadership makes a positive difference in people’s lives and in bottom-line results.By inviting her clients into this process, Mary allows them to discover what makes them successful and what can get in the way of their full potential. She partners with clients to help them leverage their abilities and develop new skills to fuel sustainable growth.

Mary has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago as well as a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. She is a licensed Clinical Professional Counselor.

Fraser Clark

Fraser works with large corporations and family businesses on individual coaching and team facilitation. He develops people to help them achieve results, focusing not only on the results but on the process used to achieve the goal or outcome.

After spending 35 years in the business world, Fraser is familiar with the complexities of the executive suite in large corporations, start-ups and multi-generational, family-owned businesses. As a senior executive at Kraft, Inc., he led teams in strategy, innovation and change management, and later founded and grew his own custom furniture company. His background instilled a ROI-driven approach that drives many of the decisions and challenges facing senior executives.

Fraser believes that individuals should never stop growing and discovering untapped potential. Using his training in psychology, he helps leaders leverage their strengths and address their current limitations. In team settings, Fraser helps establish collaboration, support and effective problem solving among team members.

Fraser has degrees in business from the University of Michigan and counseling psychology from the Adler School of Psychology.

Linda Balkin

Linda helps senior executives, high potential leaders, and teams become more effective. She uses an individualized approach that draws from neuroscience and psychology, combined with a pragmatic business lens, to help clients expand their own capacity and create positive sustained change.

Linda understands the impact leaders can have on an organization’s results and people – for better or for worse. Previously, in her roles as a Principle for two retained executive search firms and as a Director driving growth at an information start-up, she gained deep knowledge about what makes leaders successful.

Linda is committed to helping leaders be their best selves. Adapting to their personal learning styles, she ensures clients feel both challenged and supported throughout the coaching processes. As she promotes greater self-awareness that translates into new ways of operating, clients grow their capabilities, explore new possibilities, and feel empowered to leverage their own resourcefulness.

Linda has a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan. She is a certified coach through the International Coaching Federation and The Coaches Training Institute.

Blaze Konkol

Blaze works with professionals on developing management and leadership skills, career transitions, job searches, expanding the scope and complexity of roles and career advancement. He helps his clients frame their experiences and mindsets in new ways to help them become more effective and productive.

Blaze has spent more than 15 years coaching and developing employees and leaders at for profit and non-profit organizations around the world. As the Senior Director of Career Management at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Blaze leads a global team responsible for career development of students and alumni around the world. Prior to his role at Booth, Blaze led the creation of an internal coaching team at Deloitte that helped senior-level employees develop and strengthen their leadership skills.

With a strong aptitude for language, Blaze is able to communicate with his clients in a clear, direct way, creating an open and honest dialogue that fosters a positive and productive working relationship. His wide range of experience enables him to understand the different obstacles professionals face and help them integrate other vantage points.

Blaze has undergraduate degrees in English and History from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. He is an expert practitioner of several personality and vocational assessments.

Leigh Rocklin

Leigh takes an integrated approach to coaching that helps her clients develop new skills and behaviors to become even more impactful in their roles. She blends mindfulness and behavioral change techniques to help them overcome obstacles and deliver results. Leigh helps her clients successfully identify and navigate family and interpersonal dynamics, business priorities and career choices.

With nearly 20 years of experience in counseling psychology and education, Leigh applies her cognitive behavioral skills knowledge to business settings and situations. She has been trained in the use of Mindfulness and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which empowers her to help her clients regulate their emotions and be more effective in problem solving and inter-personal solutions. In addition to her clinical work, Leigh has taught and supervised master students in the Counseling Psychology program at Northwestern University.

Leigh uses neurobiological insights and certified assessments to understand how her clients process information and make decisions, which can help uncover personal drivers and biases. Through this process, she helps her clients feel as if they can embrace the best parts of who they are and gives them the resources to overcome mindsets or habits that hold them back.

Leigh earned her Bachelor of Arts in Consumer Economics from the University of Michigan, her Master in Education in Curriculum and Instruction at Loyola University and her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University.